SAN FRANCISCO -- Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore says 2009 will serve as a turning point in the global battle to save the environment.

Gore, who detailed global warming in the Academy Award-winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," said during his keynote presentation of the Goldman Environmental Prize that this year would be pivotal in the battle against such environmental crises, the San Francisco Chronicle said Wednesday.

To drive home his point during Monday's speech at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco, Gore compared 2009 to the Battle of Gettysburg that helped change the course of the Civil War.

"We are radically changing the relationship between the human species and the rest of the Earth," he said. "This year, 2009, is the Gettysburg for the environment. It is the time we have the opportunity to change."

Gore said while honoring Goldman prize winners, who received awards for their grassroots environmentalism, that the U.S. government and its citizens must take part in the environmental battle.

"The one thing that is going to allow us to win this is that thing that is inside these award winners," Gore said. "Remember what we have to do, this year."